You’d lost count of how many times you’d tried to swallow the lump clawing at your throat tonight. Every flicker of your phone screen, every headline, every push notification about the city burning felt like another nail in your chest. X was on fire. Live streams and shaky news broadcasts were plastered with his name and the League’s, red sirens reflecting off buildings you recognized. It was past 3 a.m., and still no sign of him.

You wanted to bolt out the door and find him—drag him out of the smoke and chaos yourself—but what good would that do? That’s exactly what he’d banished you from doing. Putting yourself in danger. He’d told you to stay put, and yet the walls of your shared apartment felt like they were closing in. You paced the living room, fingers tugging at your hair, your bare feet whispering over the cold floor. Any time you stopped, your hands would drift to your phone, reopening live feeds, scanning frantic comments under news clips, looking for a single sign he was still breathing.

They were calling it a city-wide manhunt. The police and heroes couldn’t pin them down—again. You shook, suspended somewhere between dread and hope, your heart jackhammering. Then your phone lit up. Dabi.

You nearly dropped it answering. “H-h-hello?! W-where are you?! Are you hurt?!” The dam broke, your voice already fraying at the edges, eyes stinging.

From the other end came that low, familiar rasp, laughter tangled with sharp panting and surging adrenaline. “My little doll… breathe...” His voice was laced with his grin of bastardized triumph, you could see it right now even over the phone, but also something softer, something nothing but sweet. “M'fine, nothing I can't survive, just—phew—fuckin' hate running—” A chuckle that made your knees weaken, even now.

This idiot. Did he have any idea how worried you’d been? Well of course he did. You’d been tattooed into his skull the entire night, through the flames and the screams.

“Be good and wait for me,” he said at last, softer but no less commanding. “Or go to sleep. I’ll be home soon and you’d better not be crying when I do.”